Normandy 44 - The Battle of Le Petit-Clelland

We played out the first battle yesterday - a bit of a what if scenario to blood our new troops - British paras (Martin c - has account here ) and American armour (me)

James brought over more scatter terrain to add to what I had already set up and his Germans. We cluttered the table up some more. By time we were adding troops it was looking very good.

lots of trees, hedges ,fields, rolling hills - very Normandy

Our scenario had Martins paras assembling in the night to capture the two bridges from the Germans and hold until relieved by my US forces - who were in no rush!

Para move into the town

The flak gun crew woke up and sprayed lead everywhere

The action was intense south of the village with Martin chucking everything at James's reinforcing tanks.

Meanwhile , my lead recon scouted the lanes looking for an easy way through

probing round the corner the lead jeeps spy defenders 

My light tanks advance through wood , as fire destroys the lead recon on my right. 

The main column arrives

and so does a little ambush! 

time for a little attention from the Air Force - 1/200th P47 our now until I get my 15mm ones painted,, but scratch a  Stud

My light forces blue away at a gun battery position to clear the track into town

A second Stug is blown up by a Sherman , the 3rd bails out.. the road is clear.

Paras have cleared the anti tank gun at the railway crossing time to race on down the roads 

the bridge is secure ! 

a few more shots of the newly liberated village of Le Petit -Clelland

Martins paras had a great game clearing out the defenders and coping with an uncanny ability by James of being able to roll just the right random dice to bring his forces on in the worst place for Martin!

The effort put into the terrain really payed back - we were all really pleased with the look of the table we are planning on up scaling to a 16x6 large D Day game later in the year , so will need a lot of terrain bits , but we are well on the way .